In the vacuum of the players’ silence, it has been the Iranian diaspora in Australia who are speaking out against the regime
A
s Iran’s national anthem began to trumpet around Gold Coast Stadium on Monday night, members of an Iranian fan group who had gathered near the halfway line began to unfurl red, white and green flags.
They weren’t the flags of their home nation, though. At least, not the nation they want to remember.
“The flag is the Lion and Sun flag: our last known flag before the Islamic regime took over in 1979 and invented the new flag,” says Ara Rasuli, who was in the crowd.
